Wednesday, November 7, 2007

"GAZA, (PIC)-- MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular anti-sanctions committee, said that there are more than 1,000 Palestinian patients awaiting urgent treatment abroad but cannot because of the imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, which, he asserted, is contrary to all international norms and human rights, and called for the immediate opening of the Rafah border crossing before the situation in Gaza explodes.

In a press conference held on Tuesday at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza during a sit-in staged by Palestinian patients, Khudari stated that the Palestinian patients in Gaza are threatened with slow death and every day that passes new cases come to the surface.

The committee's head called on human rights organizations to pressure the Israeli occupation in order to open the crossing for the citizens, highlighting that the continuing closure of the crossings will cause Gaza explode any time.

Amongst the patients staging the sit-in at the Shifa hospital was a young girl of 15, Diana Abu Amr, who has been suffering for the past three years from insulin-dependent diabetes and who needs urgent medical supervision outside the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, a 36-year-old Palestinian man suffering from kidney failure died as a result of the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza. He was waiting for the Rafah border crossing to open so that he could travel abroad to have a kidney transplant.

Later on Tuesday, Khudari sent several letters to European officials and jurists explaining the deteriorating humanitarian situation resulting from the Israeli siege and urging them to intervene to alleviate the suffering of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

The MP explained the tragic conditions at all levels in the Gaza Strip and how the siege imposed on the strip gets tighter everyday without any sign of hope that this crisis would end and that the siege is threatening the lives of dozens of Palestinian patients.

He also mentioned the suffering of stranded Palestinian students and the Palestinians working abroad who want to travel and cannot in addition to the closure of crossings and the lack of basic living materials, confirming that the Palestinian people are expecting a daring global position saving them from death and destruction."